In a message dated 12/20/01 5:18:50 PM, WeirdNJMag@aol.com writes:

In the recent year end newsletter that we sent out to all of you on our mailing list we included a story by Chris G. The tale was about a fully decorated Christmas tree he noticed late one night deep in the PATH train tunnel under the Hudson River, somewhere between the Christopher Street station in NY, and the Pavonia/Newport stop in Jersey City. Well, apparently Chris was not just suffering from seasonal delusions brought on by his eggnog and wassail revelries (which we had suspected might be the case). Shortly after people began receiving the newsletter, we began to get feedback from other people who had also witnessed the strange subterranean spectacle.

Here are a few of those letters:

Of Trains, Tunnels and Christmas Trees

HI, I was just looking at your newsletter and noticed the story about the PATH Christmas tree. What was seen was really there. At this location there is a signal maintainers room. During the morning and evening rush two maintainers are stationed there just in case problems arise. They get dropped off and picked up by trains. The Christmas tree is there all year and is only lit from Thanksgiving till just after the new year. There is usually a Happy Holidays sign too but it has been replaced by an American Flag put up after the attack on the World Trade Center. –Dan Weland

Conifer Junction, What's Your Function?

Hi, I just wanted to confirm that yes, there is indeed a Christmas tree in the PATH tunnel. I have no idea why and I would like to know who put it there. The PATH authorities must know it's there, but if they do not I don't want to draw attention to it, they might take it away. Next time I am in the stations I'll simply ask one of the workers, "know anything about a Christmas tree?" –Caroline, Jersey City

PATHway Pine a Permanent Memorial?

Hi, I was just reading your newsletter I got in the mail today. I am 33 years old and that Christmas tree has been in that tunnel since I was a kid. My parents and I used to go to Manhattan almost every Saturday to 33rd St. When I first discovered the tree I thought I was seeing things. Since then all of my trips back to Jersey I would look for that tree. I asked my friend's father about that tree. He's a PATH electrician. He told me (don't know if its true or not) that a PATH worker was killed in that area years ago around Christmas. So his fellow employees erected the little tree as a memorial to the dead worker. –Kenny

'Twas the Stop Before Newport and All Through the PATH...

First of all, I can tell you that a Christmas tree has been featured at the same location since 1971, because that was when I first spotted it (returning, I think, from a late night in New York, similarly having availed myself of the less stringent law enforcement of the drinking laws at the time), although it was lit only between about Thanksgiving and the first week in January. The Christmas tree I saw every year for years was located where the westbound tube from Manhattan separated into tracks for Hoboken to the right and for Pavonia to the left. In the old days, where the tracks from different places joined and separated in the caissons, there had to be a manned control tower to oversee the inter-locking switches for safety's sake; it's all automated now, probably controlled from some place in North Dakota. It must've been boring down there, not to mention dark, dank, and lonely. To brighten the point where the westbound track divides, tower crews (who may have become blind, albino, and plagued by horrid skin infections over the course of their careers) set up the Christmas trees; it was a bit of glitter and a cluster of small dusty colored bulbs amidst the gloom. If a traveler looked carefully, it used to be possible to see the windows of the control tower back from the triangular point formed by the diverging tracks. I remember seeing faces behind the glass that were illuminated only by a single small desk lamp, so the oncoming motorman wouldn't lose his night vision at the junction. –Barry

Bill, I reformatted this. Hope you don't mind. Great story.
- jim 12-21-2001 6:22 pm [add a comment]

• that was me posting as Jim again / thank us, we are welcome
  
  
  
  - bill 12-22-2001 3:38 am [add a comment]